Improvement in water-meters



UNITED STATES Trice.

' aTeNT IMPROVEIVI ENT IN WATER=METERS.'

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 25,9413, dated November l, 1F59.

.To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEVI BURNELL, of Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin, have invented a new and Improved Vater-Meter; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact meters in which a bucket-wheel is employed,

which is caused to rotate by the gravity of the water as it enters one of the buckets after the other; and it consists in arranging the induction-pipe, which also forms a gudgeon or arbor, around which the bucket-wheel rotates, with a narrow slot, in combination with lips formed by the inner edges of the buckets, in such a manner that when one of the buckets is filled to the required height the water is cut ofic instantaneouslyV and made to tlow into the next succeeding bucket; and my invent-ion also consists in the arrangement of a counterpoise, in combination with stops on the outside of said bucket-wheel, whereby the wheel is arrested until the weight of the water in the iillingbucket is able to overcome the counterpoise,when the latter is raised and the next succeeding bucket brought into action. By these means the water in the buckets is made to rise to a uniform height, and it is not only measured correctly, but also weighed at the same time.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe it.

The bucket-wheel Arotates on a hollow arbor, B. This arbor is stationary, one end of the same being firmly secured to a plate, C, that is fastened to the frame or chamber in which the wheel operates. The arbor fits loosely into the wheel, and one side of the same rests on friction-rollers a. The other side of the wheel forms atubular projection, b, which turns on a pivot, c, that extends from the hollow arbor, being supported by a pendant, il. A pinion, c, which is secured on the tubular projection b of the wheel, serves to transmit the motion of thelatter to the registering n1echanism. The space inclosed by the rim and sides of the wheel is divided into four (more or less) buckets, D, which are furnished with two openings, f and g, one to receive and the other to discharge the water. The edges of the inlet-openings f are bent up, forming lips h, that nearly touch the outside of the arbor B. The form of the buckets D is such that the water, as it enters one after the other, causes the wheel A to rotate simply by its gravity and independent from the head under which it enters. Water is admitted to the hollow arbor B by a tube, i, and a narrow slot,`;, serves to bring the water to the buckets. If the wheel were now left to itself, a comparatively small quantity of Water admitted into cach bucket would be sufiicient to cause the wheel to rotate. It is necessary, therefore, to make provision to arrest the wheel until cach bucket fills to a certain uniform height. This object I have effected by placing stops L on the outside of the wheel, which strike against one arm of a bell-crank lever, E, from the other arm of which a counterpoise, F, is suspended. That end of the bell-crank which retains the wheel is furnished with a frictionroller, l, and the weight of the counterpoise is such that it arrests the wheel in the position shown in Fig. l until the bucket under the slot j is lled up to the required height. rl`he weight of the water is now sufcient to overcome the counterpoise F, the stop passes the frictienroller Z, and the next succeeding bucket comes into action. All this takes-place instantaneously, and the lips h on the inner edges of the buckets as they pass the narrow slot j cutoff the water from each bucket so quick that no perceptible fault can occur.

By the arrangement of stops 7c and of the counterpoise F the water is not only measured correctly, but it is also weighed, so rthat a meter constructed according to myinvention will give a more correct result than any meter heretofore used.

It is of course necessary to inclose this meter v in an air-tight chamber, from the bottom of which the water is distributed, so that the pressure of the air in the upper part of the chamber which is occupied by the meter counterbalanees the head ofthe water. This chamber forms at the same time zt protection to the working parts of the meter.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Ihe arrangement of the hollow arbor B with a narrow slot, j, in combination with the lips h, formed by the inner edges of the buckets D, substantially as and for the purpose specifiedi LEVI BURNELL. Vitnesses:

W. HAUFF, J. F. BUCKLEY. 

